Tuesday, 23 June 2015

The Summer of Revolution starts here.

On Saturday 20 June a quarter of a million people gathered
at the banking centre of London and marched to Parliament square.

Coaches came from all over the country all to unite against
the government, every regional accent could be heard in the crowd and 6 coaches
came from Cardiff alone. I was on one of two Union Subsidised coaches from
Exeter.

The march was a rave
for a reason, people danced in the streets of London to bellowing sound systems
and drumming bands, and like a good free festival there was outrageous
self-expression along with a radical sense of community.

I walked a group against privatising the NHS wearing a tee
shirt made by my daughter, it was covered on red paint to look like blood and
read “Greed Kills, Save Our NHS”.

Everyone there was angry at the system for their own
reasons, there was every group you could imagine from packs of young people
waving the communist flag to Bitcoin fans to animal rights activists. This
anarchic atmosphere was not completely chaotic, the march was incredibly
organised with every theme sectioned off so every cause had a clearly defined
voice.

Banners ranged from violent to the ridiculous and hilarious,
there were puns, rants against the rich, but the huge majority of banners were
about the cuts. Class War showed their usual sick humour about violence against
the rich, they had a fabulously offensive slogan “We have found new homes for
the Rich” as a caption for a picture of a graveyard but most said “No Cuts”
this was the main theme of the day.

One of the strangest sights was a man wearing a dress with
penises painted on it, this was a chance for release, outrage and carnival.
There were people playing in drumming bands and I took the chance to literally
dance in the streets of London. Despite the colour and outrageous was
impossible to forget this was also a day out with a serious purpose, to express
out outrage at the way Britain is being run.

Chants were varied form anti Scientology while walking past
their head office taunts to the surreal “All kittens are equal”.

An exciting, happy atmosphere of solidarity, and a sense
this demonstration could lead to something huge, there is the passion
organisation and energy to do this. Like
a great old school, free festival I went home feeling energised and changed for
the whole experience, a quarter of a million other people had seen through this
government’s lies, were angry and hungry for change.

The question is all of these groups can come together for a
day but can such diverse groups of people make a real difference, I talked to a
friend who was involved in the “Occupy Exeter” camp and he pointed out every
reason Occupy was angry started from similar causes, every group needs to
remember this and make sure the carnival gets serious and we all take action.

Let 2015 this be a summer of love with a true purpose, let
the carnival continue but the work begin.